Last month he admitted assault resulting in actual bodily harm against Sian Bates on February 22 this year, and intending to pervert the course of justice between March 3-14.

The court heard that on the night of February 22, Carter was heavily intoxicated and was in Newport with Ms Bates who was dressed up for a night out.

Judge Daniel Williams said: "You didn't like that. You were determined she should go back to her home. There may not have been overt coercion but there didn't need to be."

At the flat Carter started ripping off Ms Bates' clothes, "set about her with a flurry of punches and strangled her", said Judge Williams.

"She had substantial injuries and was in absolute terror," he said.

Carter was arrested and remanded on March 3, but on March 26 Ms Bates called police and gave a different version of events, said Nicholas Gedge, prosecuting.

Police investigated and found that Ms Bates' mobile phone number was on Carter's approved prison phone list under a different name and he had been calling her daily.

The calls were listened to and it was discovered that he had asked her to phone his solicitor and make a new statement, saying that she "had to do what she had to do" to get him out of prison.

"He told her to tell the police she had felt pressured and her memory later came back, and that they had both fallen down the stairs," said Mr Gedge.

Nicholas Jones, defending, said Carter was "truly sorry" and wanted to apologise.

"The reason he contacted her was not to get her to drop the charges, but to get her to say what he believed to be the truth of the matter," he said.

"The problems in the relationship started because Ms Bates had a miscarriage with the defendant's child at the beginning of January. It caused great difficulty and they both started drinking too much and taking drugs, he says.

"This is not out of character but he has no record for actual violence since 1999," said Mr Jones.

Judge Williams said Carter had demonstrated no insight into what he had done and had shown satisfaction at causing Ms Bates' distress.

"This was a sustained assault on a vulnerable victim, you were heavily under the influence of intoxicants and the fear it caused was immeasurable," he said.

He sentenced Carter to 20 months' prison for assault and four months consecutively for intending to pervert the course of justice, totalling 24 months.

He imposed an indefinite restraining order on Carter against Ms Bates.